LUSAKA, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Zambia, Africa's second biggest producer of copper, saw export earnings from the red metal increasing by 49.7 percent in the first half of 2017, figures released by its finance ministry said on Thursday.

Earnings from copper earnings rose to 3,165.9 million U.S. dollars during the first half of 2017 from 2,114.3 million dollars over the same period last year, according to figures published in the 2018-2020 medium term expenditure framework released by the ministry.

This has been attributed to an increase in both export volumes and copper prices on the international market.

Realized copper prices averaged 5,655.4 dollars per ton during the first half of 2017 compared to 4,499.3 dollars during the same period of last year.

The southern African nation, however, recorded a decline in non-traditional exports during the first half of the year to 811.7 million dollars from 835.5 million dollars.

This was mainly on account of reduced export of maize, cotton lint, wheat and gemstones. Enditem

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